Lansdowne MS 456

The text is written on one side of the parchment, in three vertical columns with the central column being double the width of the two flanking columns, so that they could be folded inwards. The parchment was then folded lengthwise, concertina-style, rather than rolled, to form a winged roll-codex . The manuscript was later cut into folios at the folds and rebound as a codex with text pages facing each other, so that the text is on f. 2v and 3r, 4v and 5r, etc, and the intervening folios are blank; the codex must be turned sideways to be read.

Contents:

A genealogical chronicle from Creation to the beginning of the reign of Edward IV, of the type known as the 'Considerans' chronicle. This is one of a group of chronicles, named from the opening words of the prologue, ‘Considerans historie sacre prolixitatem’. The text is in three columns, tracing the lineages of Old Testament figures and historical and legendary kings, including kings of Britain, accompanied by a commentary, as follows:

The biblical history (in the central column up to f. 20v) is based on an interpolated version of Peter of Poitiers, Compendium Historiae in Genealogia Christi. It begins on f. 2r with Adam and Eve and ends on f. 20v with the Apostles. The left hand column traces the descendants of Cain through Herod to Pontius Pilate.

The genealogy of the kings of England, based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae, begins in the right hand column with Japhet, son of Noah (f. 2r), includes Brutus (f. 5r) and ends with Coillus, a legendary king of Britain under the Romans (f. 20v). The genealogy from Brutus begins again in the central column once the biblical genealogy has concluded (f. 20v). On f. 23r the line of descent is divided into 7, representing the kings of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, with the rubric ' Hic dividitur anglia in septem regna quorum habuit reges per se ut in frequentibus patet'. On f. 25r the 7 lines of descent come together at King Egbert in the central column and the commentary continues in the left and right columns, including the descent of William the Conqueror from the dukes of Normandy (ff. 26v-27r, left column). The genealogy ends with Edward IV, and the commentary ends 'hereditariu[m] anno d[omi]ni m cccclxi '(1461).

This and a number or chronicles, including Add MS 30509, 31950, Harley Roll 9 and Royal MS 14 B VIII were probably copied by a single scribe working in London or Westminster but illustrated by different artists (according to Scott (Later Gothic Manuscripts (1996), who lists 21 rolls and roll-codices of this type). Notes have been added in the margins and on the versos in a later cursive script. This is one of the earliest surviving genealogies of Edward IV's reign and one of the first bound accordion manuscripts (Shirota, 'Neither Roll nor Codex' (2019), p. 265).

Decoration:

One miniature in colours, in a red and blue roundel, of the Fall, with the serpent handing the apple to Eve (f. 2v). One large decorated initial in colours with gold with a foliate partial border (f. 2v). A pen diagram of the ark and a world map (f. 2v). Diagrams in red, green and light brown (ff. 6v, 7r, 15r). Names in the genealogy are in squares of green or light brown, or in roundels of red, light brown or blue, with lines of descent in green, red or light brown. Initials in blue with penwork decoration in red. Rubrics and some names in red.